The U.S. Air Force has released a draft Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) requesting proposals for Soft Organic Functional Technology (SOFT).
The objective is to conduct applied research and development (R&D) in order to advance the state-of-the-art in the areas of biotechnology, biologically derived or inspired materials, flexible electronics material development, and organic and inorganic hybrid materials systems and devices.
The proposed contract action under SOFT builds upon the research and development investigations conducted to date under the Broad Spectrum Engineered Materials (BSEM) program, and is to continue this strategy as a replacement for the BSEM contract.
Research and development, and technical transition methodology will include evaluation of new and/or modified materials systems and new/improved laboratory procedures, analytical, characterization, and modeling techniques to evaluate materials performance.
Relevant environment testing and user evaluations will be vital components in the technology transition phase of development. The current goal is the development of materials and processing methodologies that are vital to create advanced materials and devices for the Air Force.
The biotechnology and flexible electronics fields under development are candidates for use in air, space, physiological monitoring and existing AF assets and weapon systems applications.
The U.S. Air Force intends to issue a single award from the BAA; with three task order awards are expected at time of award:
- Task Order 0001: Biotechnology Exploration
- Task Order 0002: Flexible Electronics Exploration
- Task Order 0003: Rapid Research and Development for Warfighter Needs
It is estimated that the total dollar amount of the ID/IQ contract will have a ceiling of $45M.
Further details are available under Solicitation Number: BAA-RQKM-2015-0001.